Pfizer caught faking it again

Big Pharma crimes uncovered AGAIN?

How many times do we have to go through this before the rest of the world stops trusting Pfizer? Yet again, it’s been uncovered that they tampered with trial results to seek more opportunities to line their pockets. And you can bet they’ll bounce back to do it again.

I’m not at all surprised. But that doesn’t mean I’m not seeing red.

Once again, Pfizer’s been caught in shady dealings. And once again, we’re all left to pick up the pieces.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University examined internal documents from Pfizer and found the Big Pharma giant appears to have altered or just trashed unfavorable study findings in an effort to expand the use of their epilepsy drug Neurontin.

Looking for more cash as always, they were looking into getting it out there for pain and migraines. So they lined up trial after trial, eager for approval. And in the meantime, they kept nudging doctors about these off-label uses (though we all know that kind of marketing is illegal).

Now, clinical trials are supposed to be built around a very specific scientific question. And of course there are rules,including that, once that question is asked, researchers can’t go back and change it without an official amendment.

Rules? Pfizer doesn’t need no stinkin’ rules!

When Neurontin didn’t perform as they wanted, Pfizer started playing musical chairs with the study outcomes. Some they changed. Some they shifted around. And some, they just ditched. Of 20 study reports that should have been available, eight never made it into medical journals. Of the 12 that did make it, a full eight were altered.

Despite being sued for their actions back in 2004, the Pfizer studies in question still aren’t publicly available.

These actions are terrible, to be sure. But the way they’re covered by the media isn’t helping, either. When I found this story, it was in the Health section of ABC’s Web site. A multi-billion dollar company plays with the numbers in search of more and more money, and it’s "Health" news because the company makes drugs. Yet when financial companies mess with the lives of the American people, it doesn’t get shuffled off to "Business," does it?

This kind of news needs to be brought to the front page. Tucking it away in the "Health" section just isn’t going to cut it. Because once a company starts screwing around with the lives of millions of people, that’s no longer "Health." It’s front-page-headline worthy news.

But as long as these reports keep getting pushed to the inner sections of the news, they’re a lot easier to ignore. And Big Pharma is free to keep doing whatever they want with our lives.

And, as long as we keep letting drug companies fund their own research, this is going to keep happening again and again. We can’t trust them to keep our best interests at heart—with these criminals, the almighty dollar will always win out over our health and well being.

Comments

Yes indeed these people are a LOOLO, and for the rest of us, well folks, we keep quiet we pay the prize, meanwhile they continue with their shenanigans, and you know what a big lollipop represents right on top of our heads. JAM

Nothing surprises me about Big Pharma, what surprises me is the fact that a lot of Drs in their unethical ways, are treating us as customers instead of patients, our great country is suffering, we have become too greedy, we have a drug for just about anything and yet our health have not improved one bit, it is good for the medical system, the more customers the better.

Christine has given us another good example of what I call the great American “con game”: health care in America. Our health/disease care system is corrupt to its core because of the way that Big Pharma corporations use fraud, deceit, and manipulation of drug “research” data and political influence to get FDA approval for their toxic drugs and vaccines. Any health care “reform” bill that doesn’t seriously address the corruption that is killing and maiming millions of people is not reform at all. We’ll have more of the same con game with devastating health consequences for millions of people.

This has to be one of the most corrupt co’s out there. God help the kids that are going to be injected with this crap at: 2 months, 4 months, 6 months and between 12 and 15 months of age. FIVE shots of this one untrusting worthy substance before they are 1.5 yrs old! I feel even sorrier for the little ones in ‘developing countries’ that will have zero chance to sue for injuries because they have zero nickels to rub together….I hope there is a particular hell for people who do this to little kids.

Pfizer told the committee it would charge $108 a dose for the new product, 30 percent higher than the $83 a dose it charged for Prevnar 7.

The F.D.A. twice extended its review time for Prevnar 13, which Pfizer said was the most complex biological product ever submitted for regulatory review. An F.D.A. panel voted 10 to 1 in November to approve it, with one member expressing concern about safety, especially about adverse reactions like redness at the injection site and occasional fever.

Pfizer plans to expand the childhood vaccine usage in other markets, including developing countries, through the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, at a much lower price, Mr. Germano said.

The World Health Organization says at least a million children worldwide die each year of pneumococcal disease, most of them very young children in developing countries, making it the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death.